Arroyo players celebrate their victory over Marshall High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

RIVERSIDE >> On the bus ride to UC Riverside for the CIF Southern Section Division 7 championship game against Pasadena Marshall, Arroyo baseball coach Randy Hernandez gave each of his players a piece of paper.

He wanted the Knights (15-8-1) to explain why the game was important to them and why they deserved to be in the position. It was Hernandez’s attempt to revitalize the inspiration and connection that propelled the team to its first title game appearance.

Arroyo players celebrate their victory over Marshall High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

Arroyo’s Alexander Peterson (17) reacts during their game against Marshall High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

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Marshall’s Alex Nava (7) works against Arroyo High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

Arroyo players celebrate their victory over Marshall High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

Marshall players after their loss to Arroyo High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

Arroyo players celebrate their victory over Marshall High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

Marshall’s Diego Zambrana (5) reacts during their loss to Arroyo High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

Arroyo’s Ivan Ortega (6) reacts after his RBI double against Marshall High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

Marshall’s Ian Cox (1) can’t make the catch against Arroyo High School during Division 7 baseball championship game at Riverside Sports Complex In Riverside Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo by FRANK BELLINO, Contributing Photographer.

Arroyo overcame a two-run second-inning deficit behind an eight-strikeout, complete-game performance from senior pitcher Alexander Peterson, who also drove in four runs, to help the Knights knock off the Eagles 12-2 on Saturday and win the first CIF-SS baseball crown in school history.

“The emotion that was in that room got us to cultivate a bigger-than-us, bigger-than-baseball mentality,” Hernandez said. “Once we came in here, we didn’t pay attention to stats, we didn’t pay attention to the team we played, we came to play Arroyo baseball.”

Playing Marshall baseball is what the Eagles (16-9-1) were unable to do. The team that surprised many after three straight seasons of mediocrity, were handcuffed by six errors. Three of them came in the bottom of the third inning, where the Knights extended their two-run lead to six.

“We haven’t been doing that,” Marshall coach Joe Federico said. “We’ve been playing very well but for whatever reason we didn’t come to play. We left a lot of guys on in the first couple of innings and (Arroyo) didn’t. They played through 27 outs and we didn’t.”

Marshall struck first in the top of the first thanks to a double from sophomore Alex Chu that went into the left-center field gap. Sophomore Diego Zambrana brought in the fourth run of the inning with a hit, giving the Eagles a two-run cushion against their Mission Valley League foe.

“In my head I was just like, ‘We’ve got to get out of this inning,’” Peterson said. “Once we started hitting the ball and getting on top of their pitcher it was a whole another game. The energy in the dugout was different. Everyone was on top of each other. There’s no stopping a team like that.”

Once the Knights finally started to put together hits, there was no stopping them. After Marshall starting pitcher Alex Nava walked Arroyo’s Aaron Martinez to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the second, senior Ivan Ortega tied the game at 2 with a two-run single to left field. Run-scoring singles from senior Felix Perez and Peterson, respectively, gave the Knights a 4-2 lead going into the third.

Ortega finished with four RBIs and Perez recorded one more in the third.

“Peterson is our horse, he’s our go-to guy when we need to get something done, he gets it done,” Hernandez said. “Two games prior to this one he put up 15 strikeouts so that cemented our position here in CIF and at that moment we knew we were going to take it.”

The Knights extended their cushion to four runs in the bottom of the third, fueled by a trio of Eagle errors. With two runners on, Aaron Martinez reached safely thanks to a blooper to left field that neither sophomore Devon Kelly nor shortstop Anthony Hammack reeled in.

“That ball’s got to be caught and we’re all right and we get out of the big inning,” Federico said. “We didn’t get out of it and they just kept pouring it on, credit to them … We had six errors on the board but in our book we had 10 errors. Can’t win that way.”

The lack of communication resulted in a run for the Knights, who tacked on three more in the inning, two on a double by Ortega and one on a dropped ball by center fielder Ian Cox.

The rough outing for Marshall’s fielders closed the book on an improbable postseason run for the Eagles, who did not record more than 10 wins in their previous three seasons leading up to this year.

“I’ve been telling them since Day 1, ‘Play good baseball and we’ll go far,’” Federico said. “‘Get in the playoffs and we’ll go far,’ and they started to believe it. Here we are. We’ve been talking about it all year.”

Nava allowed four earned runs through 1 2/3 innings. Thomas Arnst, who relieved Nava in the second, allowed four hits, a pair of walks and zero unearned runs through four innings. Nava and Chew each recorded a pair of hits for the Eagles, who left 10 runners on base.

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